CHARLOTTE, N.C. (NBC News) One of the two American missionaries who became infected with Ebola and then recovered is speaking out for the first time.

“There were many mornings when I woke up and thought, ‘I’m alive!’ And there were mornings when I thought, ‘I don’t think I’m going to make it any more,'” Nancy Writebol recalled as she spoke to reporters Wednesday morning.

Writebol said her heart sank when she heard the news another S.I.M. colleague has fallen ill with Ebola in Africa.

51-year-old Rick Sacra had been treating pregnant women, not Ebola patients. Sacra is said to be doing well in isolation and in “good spirits.”